Welcome to my photography site!

My name is Maura van der Linden and I have a passion for storytelling. Though this passion first showed itself on pen and paper (or at least on screen and keyboard), I took up photography so I could try to tell stories in a different way. I'm a technical writer and freelance editor during the day, so it's a pleasure and a challenge to turn to a medium that doesn't use words at all.

I'm a relatively new photographer based near Woodinville, Washington and am focused on learning my new art at the moment, though I do take a limited number of local assignments since I learn extremely well on the fly.

I'll use this blog to showcase my work as I learn and to give my experiences as a self-taught photographer who is not doing this as my main job.

Monday, July 9, 2012

RIP Merlin

One thing my photography addiction has given me is great memories captured in electronic bits. One of the reasons it’s been so quiet around here is because my old man cat, Merlin, who had been chronically ill for a while, took several bad turns for the worst and I eventually had to let him go. He was almost 19 years old and my family and I had adopted him from our vet almost 12 years ago, when his prior owner had to go to a nursing home and could not take him.

If only he could have told me the interesting life he’d had. He had one ear scarred into a bent position and a big scar on top of his head that we never knew the cause of. He was grumpy but was our dog in a cat suit – running to greet us at the door and always underfoot. He didn’t care much for the other cats, though he did let Meeps cuddle with him during the last year or two. I miss him but I’m glad to have the pictures I took, too.